Its the Mallanganee rodeo tomorrow night so that might be a problem - music and lights! JS _____ From: nswnra-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:nswnra-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Corona Australis Sent: Friday, 25 March 2011 7:10 PM To: nswnra@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [nswnra] Re: Observations last night Anyone free tomorrow night weather permitting.. for an early evening get together. Looking fantastic out here tonight. Are you getting out Vince? I'll need a hand to setup and take down my the 16" Cheers,CS Rob From: nswnra-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:nswnra-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Corona Australis Sent: Friday, 25 March 2011 16:53 To: nswnra@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [nswnra] Re: Observations last night Great report Paul Thanks for sharing Cheers,CS Rob From: nswnra-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:nswnra-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Paul McGuiness Sent: Friday, 25 March 2011 15:11 To: nswnra@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [nswnra] Observations last night Hi gang. Underneath is a report on last night. Really excellent session with a lot of good objects bagged. The Argo really helped a lot. OBSERVATIONS 24-3-2011 - PLANETARY NEBULAE TELESCOPE: 12" DOBSONAN EP's: 9mm NAGLER with 2" O-III (167X), 5mm NAGLER WITH 2" UHC (300X) TRANSPARENCY AND SEEING: 7-8 out of 10. WIND: Virtually calm, DEW: Nil. MOZZIE MEANNESS: Low!!! The explanation for the PN Classification system is explained here: http://www.blackskies.org/class1.htm Measurements were taken from this site: http://messier45.com/cgi-bin/dsdb/dsb.pl NGC 2440 - PN - PUPPIS RA: 07 41 55 DEC: -18 12 32 SIZE: 74"X42" MAG: 9.4 CLASS: V(III) Fascinating PN with an elongated central region, very bright. Averted vision revealed the outer halo running at a different orientation. I would like to see this one in darker skies. NGC 2438 - PN - PUPPIS RA: 07 41 50 DEC :-14 44 07 SIZE: 73"X68" MAG: 11.0 CLASS: IV (II) Fairly large, pretty circular grey coloured PN plotted against M46. The O-III showed a clear annular appearance. One star near the centre. NGC 3132 - PN - VELA RA: 10 07 01 DEC: -40 26 11 SIZE: 84"X53" CLASS: IV (II) The famous "Eight Burst" was very bright and oval shaped. Using the 5mm with the O-III showed a darker area around the central star. - this one is apparently not the one lighting up the PN, but a faint companion. Some info here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NGC_3132 NGC 2899 - PN - VELA RA: 09 27 03 DEC: -56 06 23 SIZE: 120"X60" In the eyepiece this one appeared as a large faint slightly oval disc. Observation reports I have seen mention knots and irregularities, that i cannot honestly say I saw, so this is another one for darker skies than suburbia. NGC 2867 - PN - CARINA RA: 09 21 25 DEC: -58 18 42 SIZE: 27" CLASS: IV This PN is a very bright, tiny disk with sharp edges and a beautiful bluish colour. NGC 3242 - PN - HYDRA RA: 10.24 46 DEC: -18 38 33 SIZE: 45"X36" MAG: 7.8 Very bright elliptical disk surrounded by a soft, fainter outer shell. Striking light turquoise color. I will certainly keep studying this one. NGC 4361 - PN - CORVUS RA: 12 24 30 DEC: -18 47 05 SIZE: 114" CLASS: IIIa(II) MAG: 10.9 This PN appeared faint in the eyepiece, but it was in a pretty light part of the sky, and the moon wasn't far away. A bit elongated. I didn't note the central star, but it should be visible. I will have another look when it is better placed. NGC 2792 - PN - VELA RA: 09 12 26 DEC: -42 25 31 SIZE: 13"X13" MAG: 11.8 CLASS: IV This small PN was quite bluish in colour and had a suggestion of annularity. NGC 2867 - PN - CARINA RA: 09 21 25 DEC:-58 18 42 SIZE: 27" MAG: 9.7 CLASS: IV This was a tiny disk with a distinct bluish colour, needing the 5mm to see it properly. It's no wonder discoverer John Herschel thought he had a new planet! Some more info: http://www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia/N/NGC_2867.html NGC 3699 - PN - CENTAURUS RA: 11 27 57 DEC: -59 57 29 SIZE: 70" MAG: 14 I couldn't believe the magnitude of this one and would have noted it as a possible misidentification, but the Argo had been picking up all these PN's with excellent accuracy. Luckily I had the O-III on all the time or I might have passed it over unseen. The same goes for a couple of others on this list. It appeared an a very faint, ghostly disc. no real details were seen, but I'm very pleased to pick it up. NGC 3211 - PN - CARINA RA: 10 17 50 DEC: -62 40 16 SIZE: 16" MAG: 11.8 CLASS: IIb This was another fairly bright, bluish coloured disc, evenly illuminated. Nice star field once I unscrewed the O-III for a look without it. The UHC also worked well with this and didn't cause the starfield to suffer anywhere near as much as the O-III. NGC 3918 - PN - CENTAURUS RAL: 11 50 17 DEC: -57 10 57 SIZE: 19" MAG: 8.5 CLASS: IIb This is one of my favourite PN's, the Blue Planetary presents as a beautiful vivid blue disk with no interior details. the surface brightness is very high. I always think that this PN "belongs" to Crux rather than Centaurus. Lastly were NGC 4594 (Sombrero), the beautiful NGC 3293 (Carina), and Omega Cen. These last just finished off an excellent and rewarding night at the eyepiece. Thanks for looking. Cheers, Paul. Regards Paul McGuiness prepress@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ------------------------------------ Lismore City Printery ------------------------------------ 201 Union Street Lismore NSW 2480 ------------------------------------ Tel. 02 6621 5371 Fax. 02 6622 1296 ------------------------------------ www.cityprint.com.au